The University will bring on new faculty members with funds from the Workforce and Innovation for a Stronger Economy Fund.
The WISE Fund, signed into action by Gov. Bobby Jindal last June, provides $40 million for the state’s higher education systems to be used to funnel graduates into high-demand jobs. The LSU System’s piece of the WISE Fund was about $14 million.
The University submitted a document for approval of its uses for WISE funding to the Louisiana Board of Regents’ WISE Council in October.
Listed on the implementation plan was the addition of 26 tenure track faculty members, subsidization of the Pelican Promise financial aid program and the purchase of equipment in the same areas as the faculty hires.
Bijaya Karki, department chair of the division of computer science and engineering, said the department was hiring new faculty in part because of the WISE Fund, but he said they would have been looking for more people regardless of the funding. He said he believed the department of computer engineering was enabled to begin hiring searches by the WISE funding.
The College of Engineering saw a 15 percent increase in enrollment this semester and, according to the implementation plan, will be home to 11 of the new hires according to the implementation plan.
The School of Kinesiology is hiring faculty members to fill two new positions using funding provided by the WISE Fund.
Kinesiology professor Melinda Solmon said each year the University’s provost requests hiring information from colleges and schools.
“We were given the opportunity to make a proposal to get new positions, we’ve gone through the process,” Solmon said. She said the schools plans were approved by the Board of Regents.
The department placed advertisements for new faculty and is accepting applications until Dec. 1 and hopes to bring them on by next fall, Solmon said.
“The kinesiology major has grown dramatically,” Solmon said. “We have a high demand for our classes. We prepare people to work in many fields.”
The WISE Fund requires a 20 percent match from a private partner. For the LSU System’s about $14 million in funding they have certified matches equaling about $4 million dollars, the largest portion of funding coming from the LSU Foundation, according to the implementation plan.
The LSU Foundation contributed about $1.4 million in matching dollars. The foundation was founded about 50 years ago with the purpose of advancing the academics of the University.
As the University moves forward, using the funding for new faculty, equipment and financial aid, the Board of Regents will have to approve the implementation. The Board will meet next in December.
The WISE Fund is a part of an initiative to align higher education with the state economy, said Tom Guarisco, Louisiana Workforce Commission communications director.
In August, LSU President F. King Alexander likened the alignment to the production of graduates to fill specific jobs. Alexander said work on the WISE Fund began more than a year ago, and initially asked for a larger sum of money. He said there is pressure to show results by next legislative session.